Our Board

Deirdre has 43 years’ experience in the Irish healthcare system. A former Registered Children’s/General Nurse, she is an experienced healthcare leader having held several senior positions and managerial roles. These included the acute hospital setting, research and healthcare planning in the private sector. In addition to her clinical qualifications, Deirdre holds postgraduate diplomas in Social Studies, Project Management and Leadership. Her most recent role was Hospital Commissioning Advisor. Deirdre lives in Dublin with her husband and has one son and two daughters. She has a particular interest in spending time outdoors with her family and friends.

Aisling Soden is a highly experienced public sector professional with an extensive background in client relationship management, corporate and stakeholder engagement, strategic innovation and talent transformation. Joining IDA Ireland in 2017 as a Section Manager in IDA’s Strategic Policy Department, Aisling provided policy analysis in the areas of transport infrastructure and housing to IDA’s Executive and Operation teams. She also managed relationships with government stakeholders to influence and advocate for IDA’s policy positions on critical infrastructure. Currently, she serves as a Section Manager in the Talent Development & Digitalisation Department in IDA Ireland, where she is responsible for leading the implementation of the talent development pillar of IDA’s strategy. Prior to joining IDA, Aisling was a Programme Manager in Science Foundation Ireland (now Research Ireland), where she managed a broad portfolio of research awards, developed policies to enhance SFI research centre performance, and engaged with industry to facilitate research partnerships. With a background in scientific research, Aisling has strong analytical and critical thinking skills and has a demonstrated track record in developing strategic partnerships and collaborations to create impactful solutions that address stakeholder issues. Aisling holds a Prof. Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring from Kingstown College Dublin, a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration from Heriot Watt University, and a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Glasgow.

JJ Hassett is a qualified Occupational Therapist with extensive frontline experience in mental health services across both the UK and Ireland. He currently works as a Senior Occupational Therapist in the Dublin South Central Mental Health Services. Since returning to Ireland in 2021, he has spent two years working in the HSE’s Specialist Rehabilitation Unit (SRU) in Bloomfield Hospital, Rathfarnham, Dublin, supporting individuals with complex, enduring mental health needs. Prior to this, he spent a number of years working in forensic mental health settings within the NHS in the UK. JJ is completing a Master’s in Healthcare Management at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), where he is building on his clinical foundation with advanced training in leadership, governance, and strategic health systems. His interests lie at the intersection of mental health, social inclusion, and person-centred rehabilitation. He brings a dual perspective to his work — grounded in frontline practice and informed by organisational and policy-level thinking — and is committed to supporting the development of inclusive, equitable, and community-led mental health services in Ireland.

Dr Emma Frawley is an Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Occupational Therapy at the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. She brings over a decade of clinical and academic experience across Ireland and the United States, with expertise in brain injury rehabilitation, mental health recovery, disability support, teaching, and research. In 2023 Emma combined clinical work with research, completing a PhD in Psychology focused on social recovery in early psychosis. She co-developed a mental health intervention, addressing cognitive challenges, which was trialled in early intervention for psychosis services in Ireland. Emma is deeply committed to involving patients and the public in mental health research. She believes that peers, families, and communities play a vital role in supporting people in their understanding of mental health, navigating challenges, and tackling stigma.

Sharon O’Connor has worked across several industries both globally and in Ireland, including financial services, not for profit, hospitality, pharma and sport. Her experience spans fundraising, communications, HR, diversity, equity & inclusion, mental health & wellbeing and corporate responsibility. In 2018 Sharon qualified as a yoga teacher while working in New York. This, she cites as a turning point in realizing the potential of wellbeing as a life enhancer which should be accessible at work. That same year, she was part of the team that created the first global mental health and wellbeing program at PwC. On returning to Ireland, she led a gender diversity in sport campaign, ‘20×20’ (pronounced 20 by 20), and subsequently became one of the first graduates of Trinity College Dublin’s Workplace Wellness Programme. As Global Lead of Employee Wellbeing at Novartis, Sharon developed mental health and wellbeing strategies and programs, collaborating with different teams around the world. She became a contributing representative on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in the area of mental health at work, and is a founding member of the Wellbeing Executives Council of The Conference Board – the first of its kind focused exclusively on workplace mental health and wellbeing.

Huge has over 50 years’ experience in the delivery and management of health and social services. He has held senior management roles in the health boards and HSE up to 2010. Huge served as the CEO of the Mental Health Commission, Sunbeam house services and the Children’s health foundation, and was also the Chief Operations officer of Genio Trust. He trained as a family therapist and hold qualifications in Legal studies and Adult and Community education. Huge has chaired the board of Mental Health Ireland since 2020 and also chairs two other charities.

Dr Ann Sheridan, PhD, M.Ed., BNS, RPN, RGN, RNT. Emeritus Full Professor of Nursing University College Dublin

Ann has over 40 years’ experience in mental health services, education and research. She has extensive expertise and experience in working with diverse health care professionals, patients/service users and carers. With a particular commitment to building research capacity among her clinical and academic colleagues, with service users/patients and carers groups, she successfully engaged and supported these diverse groups to become involved in the full spectrum of research activity. She enabled them to pursue their ideas, inviting and supporting contribution to preparation, submission and conduct of funded research; knowledge transfer, exchange and dissemination activities as co-applicants and members of research teams. She has published extensively in peer reviewed academic journals and in a range of textbooks.

Sushil has lived experience as a family supporter spanning many years. His professional experience comes from working in large multi-national commercial organisations and more recently in an Irish SME of which he is co-owner and Director.

Since 2017 he has worked as a volunteer with HSE Mental Health Engagement & Recovery at both local and national level. He is a serving Board member for Mental Health Ireland and a member of the Finance and Audit Committee. He is passionate about promoting the voice of family and supporters in mental health services to help drive changes in policy and practice that will provide support for families and supporters as well as the service users.

Ruairí Mulrean is a Partner in the Byrne Wallace Shields LLP Corporate Team. Ruairí practises in the areas of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and insolvency. Ruairí also practices in the areas of company and commercial law advising both international and domestic clients. In particular he focuses on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and insolvency. Ruairí advises both domestic and international clients in a wide range of sectors including energy, waste and manufacturing. Ruairí has a particular interest in taxation being a member of the Irish Taxation Institute and has advised on various tax driven group reorganisations and the implementation of other tax driven structures.

Robert has combined a busy work life as a mental health manager with a long record of volunteerism. He has served as Assistant Director of Mental Health services at South Lee -base at Cork University hospital for 15 yrs prior to retirement and is currently National Clinical Lead for Assisted Admissions since 2016. He has served as Chairperson of Cork Mental Health Foundation and Housing and was Director on both Boards for two terms. He was also founder and Chairperson of Out & About Association in Cork for 10 years. Robert was Clinical Researcher on The Wellcome Trust -Bipolar Genetic Project based in Trinity College (1996-2000). He has been A Director of Mental Health Ireland since 2020.

John Gibbons is Chartered Accountant with 20 years experience working in international business across multiple industries. John is the Group CFO and Executive Director of ATA, an Irish headquartered precision engineering company that manufactures and distributes cutting tools to leading industrial companies from their 11 facilities around the world. Prior to joining ATA, John spent 8 years with Dole plc (previously Total Produce), the New York stock exchange listed fresh produce company, where he focused primarily on corporate finance. John trained as a chartered accountant at KPMG. John also serves as a non-executive director of SwiftComply, a US-based gov-tech company.

Pauline has significant experience in community development and supporting families in her role as Community Development Worker at West Clare Family Resource Centre.